You gotta love a man in uniform

Here's Joseph on his way to class. This is the first day for him to wear his uniform.

Woo wee! OW OW! Whistle whistle!

Man, cat-calling is exhausting. I feel a little dirty.

He was tired of me taking his picture by this point.

Joseph, we're so proud of you for following your dream! We support you and love you very much!

Ten Year HS Reunion

Wow! Ten years! Time has flown...

I had such a blast this weekend. We started off going to Arlington Friday afternoon and ate dinner with my parents at Genghis Grill. That night was an impromptu reunion get together at Black Finn's in the Highlands so we went home and I got ready to go out there. That was a lot of fun. It was great seeing everyone in a relaxed atmosphere, having some drinks, listening to past stories and future plans. The funny thing was, I wasn't planning on attending this but decided to at the very last minute and I'm so glad I did.

The next morning, we woke up and got ready for the Alumni Picnic at Veteran's Park. The weather was beautiful - not too hot with a nice breeze. We stopped at Subway on our way and got some yummy sandwiches to eat at the park. This was a more intimate get together since not a ton of people showed, but it was cool to see everyone's kids. There were some cuties! Our class made some pretty babies! :) After the picnic, we drove back to my parent's house and packed our stuff up. I surprised Joseph with a room at the downtown Fort Worth Marriott and my parents were watching Jonathan, so we were pumped to be on our way. Once we checked in, we changed and made our way to the Flying Saucer a block away to meet up with friends. I've stayed really close to a great group of girls and we've all been friends since high school, junior high and a couple from elementary. We always have a blast when we get together and this was not exception! After we left the Flying Saucer, we were on our way to the reunion. I had the GRAND idea that we should ride the trolley over to the Ft. Worth Stockyards where our reunion was being held, so we walked over to the trolley stop and waited. A trolley finally showed up but it was the wrong one, however the driver was awesome and said he would drive over to the trolley stop we needed to be at. So we're on our way! We get to the next trolley stop and pile onto the bus, just to be met with the driver who wouldn't stop talking! It was hilarious! We asked him how long it would take to get to our destination and he gave us the looooooong answer, telling us how many minutes we had to wait where we were and how he was on a time clock that forced him to stay at certain stops for a certain amount of time and if there weren't any people waiting he could just drive on through, and what he had for lunch that day, and where his stitches were from a skiing accident, and how he can't ever work cameras properly, and on and on and on!

Needless to say, Cole, one of my good friends' husband asked the dreaded question, "How long will it take?" and the driver says we'll be there by 7:55. Cole cracked me up because he immediately lifted his left arm from his lap to look at his watch. Our reunion dinner was to start at 7 pm and by that time it was already 7:30. I think the same thought crossed all our minds - we have 25 more minutes of this?! I began to think the trolley was a bad idea at this point. Sorry friends! :(

We FINALLY made it and were greeted by Staci, who was like, "Where the heck have y'all been?!" After that, the night flew by! I took lots of fun pictures and took lots of great memories away. I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed by how well everyone looked. No one had lost their hair, no one really "let themselves go"... :) Everybody looked great - the exact same but married or with kids for the most part. Crazy!

I also have a really cool story that I'll tell in the next post about a couple of guys who I've known for a long time but didn't really KNOW them until last night. Get ready...it's totally awesome.

The next morning, Joseph and I woke up late. Hallelujah! I had no voice and a pounding headache so you know it was a good night! I can't imagine how I would have felt had I drank any alcohol. That's what's so great about not drinking - you never have a hangover! :) We ordered room service and it was delish and then we packed up to go back to Arlington. Now, I'm still exhausted and it's Monday! But my exhaustion is totally worth it. Go Warriors!

Be prepared for millions of pics. And when I say millions, I mean 14.

Jonathan eating chips at the alumni picnic

Family picnic at Veteran's Park

Waiting on the trolley

~Hey bebe~

Me and Jeni - you've seen her before from a previous post

Staci, me and Jeni - we were cheerleaders together at Miller Elementary

My high school girlies waiting for the men in our lives to take our group picture

Old friends

McConnells always have their mouths open in pictures - it's a medical condition

Go Warriors! Don't ask me about my face. I think I was ready to be done with pictures

Me, Amanda & Nicole - these ladies have fabulous jobs in New York. The one in the middle is a buyer for Ross and one of Joseph's biggest accounts at work is Ross. They've never met before but they know the same people. It's a small world.

Cute hubby pic

See? It's a medical condition

Me & Robyn Egg - I love this gal

Sleeve

I opened the front door to this the other day:

There are no words...

PS - Don't pay any attention to my drunk baby. We just rubbed whiskey on his gums to soothe the teething pain. No big deal... And for those of you who think I'm serious, please don't call CPS on me.

The end.

Happy Birthday to me!

My wonderful husband is so wonderful! He planned a wonderful surprise for me on my birthday. Wonderful words on a wonderful card and a wonderful scavenger hunt! Are you throwing up yet?

I can't believe I'm 28!!!!!

So, this birthday was a ton of fun! Joseph left for work and when I woke up, I was surprised with a card on the floor of the hallway right by our bedroom door. It told me that I was to go about my day like I normally would and I would find clues to what my present was, but I wouldn't find my present. Joseph is so creative! He's always finding little ways to surprise me. So I slowly found all my clues and the card told me to put it in order from beginning to end. Like, if I were to have a whole day, what would be first, second, third and so on? He placed the numbers 1-6 on our front counter and everytime I found something, I had to place it over a number. After everything was found, I had to write under each number what I thought my present was. It was a lot of fun!

Joseph came home for lunch and said he was playing hooky the rest of the day and took me to lunch at the Olive Garden. Can you say 3000 calories?! It was so gross yet so good at the same time! Needless to say, my birthday was incredible and I owe it all to my wonderful husband. He's the best and I'm a lucky gal!

Oh! I almost forgot! My present is a WHOLE day with Joseph - breakfast at Cracker Barrel, shopping all day and lunch, then dinner at Joe's Crab Shack (hello crablegs!) and a movie. Plus, he got me a body wrap and an hour massage. Yeah baby!

The booty I scavenged

Mmmm Cherry Sours... my favorite candy. You can only buy it at Cracker Barrel so I knew we were going there for breakfast. Easy #1

If you can, enlarge this picture and read the riddle Joseph made up. This was on our computer screen. He's so funny!

Just ignore the fact that #3 is missing. I messed up on some of my guessing so I skipped it. The fuzzy little yellow thing is a stuffed duck with a tissue draped over it. That's my massage! And the dog has pre-wrap wrapped around it to signify my body wrap. He cracks me up!

Dinner and a movie

If I didn't guess everything correctly, I didn't get the gift so you can imagine the pressure I was under! But I got them all right! Yahoo!

My little golfer. I think he looks so big here. Sad face

FORE!!!!!

Consuming my weight in breadsticks and fettucine

Six Flags at the last minute

Last Saturday, I got a call from Kristie saying she had free tickets to Six Flags and did I want to go? It was way last minute, like we were leaving in 20 minutes, so I had to scramble to find a babysitter! Thankfully, I got one and we were on our way. A family friend had season passes and got 30 free tickets that he never used and gave them to us. Unfortunately, they expired the next day so we had to use them right then! The cool thing was we were able to give away the ones we weren't going to use, so about 3 big families were blessed with free admission!

I hadn't been to Six Flags in YEARS! My favorite was the Superman ride. The last time I was there, it was brand new but I couldn't get near it the line was so long. So this time, I made sure to ride it. That's where we took the most pictures. Also, my parents came at the last minute. That was the best part! I called them on the way and invited them but my mom said they probably wouldn't make it She said this without speaking to my dad. She was bummed because one of her new puppies died and she wanted to sulk. Understandably so, but next thing I know, my dad calls me and says they'll meet us there. My dad is a total kid at heart, so I knew he'd wanna go! And he thought it would be good for my mommy to get out of the house. I love living so close to my parents. And I love that they're so easygoing. Needless to say, we had a blast and when I got home, Joseph and his two old roomies were still hanging out at our house. We all stayed up till almost 3 in the morning talking. It's what we do best.

This was AquaMan (formerly known as Splash Water Downs) I met my parents at the front gate while everyone else rode this so they were soaked and we were dry. This is after the ride when you get to go on the bridge over the water and the boat splashes a wall of water over you!

After the wall of water

Me and the parentals waiting in line for Superman

Me & Kristie

The girls

Superheroes

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Vivi & Erin!

Small, medium and large in reverse order

Yo mama so fat...

...when she sits on a rainbow, Skittles pop out!

Mmmm...Skittles...

Ok, so I've been busting my tail trying to get the rest of my baby weight off. Between my 10-year high school reunion on the 29th of this month and a cruise in November, I have plenty of motivation. It's been 18 months (tomorrow) since I had Jonathan and I'm down to the weight I was when I found out I was pregnant. This is wonderful, however I was 6-7 weeks along when I found out. I remember calling my mom crying, wondering "why was I gaining so much weight?". Her response - "Honey, sometimes people gain weight once they get married. It's completely natural." I refused to believe I was one of those people who got complacent with themselves just because I'd found my soulmate, but she had a point. My mom's good like that.

That's the beauty of getting pregnant on birth control, 30 days after you get married. We had no idea until I was further along and my friends had me take a pee test on a hunch. The smell of coffee made me want to yak which is weird because I've always loved the smell of coffee. I swore to them up and down I wasn't pregnant because "Joseph and I had a 5-year plan." I was at work and it was my turn to go pick up lunch. As I was collecting everyone's money, my wonderful friend Naomi included a pregnancy test coupon along with her cash. Very subtle... I went to Target to grab the preggo test because it was closest to the deli we ordered lunch at and wouldn't you know that the coupon I had was the same brand that was giving two tests for the price of one! I hurried back and wasn't allowed to eat until I took the test. Sure enough, the pink line revealed itself. That was a Friday afternoon, so just to be safe I took it again Saturday morning, first thing. They say the first pee of the morning has the greatest amount of protein in it, or whatever it is that pregnancy tests pick up, and I'll be danged if that pink line wasn't HOT PINK!

This brings me back to the present. I'm going to be brave and take a page from my friend, Paige's book (no pun intended) and post my weight. Are you ready? Drumroll, please..............

132.

This is first-thing-in-the-morning, naked-as-a-jaybird, before-I've-brushed-my-teeth weight. I'm not responsible for what it is once clothes have been put on. In a perfect world I have about 10 more pounds I'd like to lose. We'll see how it goes. The kicker is, as soon as November rolls around, we're going to start trying again. I'm getting skinny just to get fat again! But I'll do this next pregnancy so much different. I'll actually exercise!

Ready for anything!

Joseph found this super cute life jacket that actually fits Jonathan and took me to Target to show it to me. Jonathan loves it which is awesome because every other time he's had to wear a life jacket, he freaks. I love his face in these pictures. Such a ham! We didn't buy it because it just isn't necessary right now, but it's nice to know there's one available.